


Love, Late Nights, & Black Coffee

by kainess



Series: The Arcana One Shots [1]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Coffee, F/M, Fluff, Gender-Neutral Apprentice (The Arcana), Gender-Neutral Pronouns, M/M, One Shot, Reader-Insert, Slice of Life, idk i made this for a friend lol, it's just fluff and cuteness that's it, julian devorak - Freeform, julian/reader - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23797165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kainess/pseuds/kainess
Summary: Julian admits his feelings for you over a cup of black coffee.Gender-neutral MC/reader.
Relationships: Apprentice/Julian Devorak, Julian Devorak/Reader
Series: The Arcana One Shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716838
Comments: 10
Kudos: 121





	Love, Late Nights, & Black Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> Be gentle please, this is my first fic for The Arcana lol I hope it's okay?

There’s silence in the air as you drum your fingers along the surface of the counter. Your eyes are heavy with sleep as you drowsily stare ahead. It was a quarter past four in the morning in Vesuiva and you were currently watching the plague doctor anxiously pace around the front of yours and Asra’s shop. “Julian,” you muffle a yawn as you speak, “what’s wrong? It’s four in the morning.” He stops pacing momentarily and casts a glance in your direction before returning to his original pace. A sigh forces its way past your lips and you push yourself away from the counter and towards the distraught man. 

“What is with you tonight, huh?” Although you want to be annoyed with the man, you still feel a smile grace your lips as you step in front of him, effectively cutting off his pace. “Who shows up at four in the morning, banging on the door and demanding they be brought inside, only to then go completely mute and pace around like a lunatic.” You take his hands in yours, only to then notice that they were trembling. Your curiosity is piqued at this and your eyebrow quirks upwards. “What’s going on? You’re actually like you actually killed someone this time.” You pause if ever so briefly, “You didn’t, right?”

Julian looks appalled at this and pulls his hands from your grip. “I-- why you don’t actually think I’m capable of something like that, do you?” He takes a moment to ponder it before a sly grin forms on his lips. “Well, I guess you  _ could  _ say I’m strong enough to, and possibly charming enough to trick someone into a trap. I guess it’s not a complete reach, but--”

“Okay, you definitely didn’t kill someone.” The sly look on his face falls and you have to stop yourself from laughing. “Now, now, don’t get so dejected over it.” You gently take his hands in yours again and pull him towards the small kitchen. “What’s got you so worked up? Are you lonely again? Nightmares?” It was nights like these that you were glad Asra was out of town so he wouldn’t be forced to stay up all night too. That and you doubted that Asra would be as kind to Julian in this scenario as you. 

“Can’t a guy just come to visit?” His smile is weak and it doesn’t quite reach his eyes, and it definitely doesn’t go unnoticed by you. Still, you know better than to pry if your relationship with Asra was anything to go off.  _ At four in the morning,  _ you wish to say, but keep it to yourself. 

“You must be tired though. Your sleeping schedule continues to baffle me. How are you alive?” You sit him on a stool at the counter. “I’ll fix you up some coffee.” You weren’t sure if drinking coffee this early would be a good idea for anyone involved, but you were both already awake and it  _ was _ unlikely that you’d both be going back to bed any time soon. 

Silence stretches over the two of you as you silently get started on his coffee. You don’t want to intrude, so you wait for him to pick up the conversation and go with it where he pleases. If you were being honest, you could listen to Julian talk forever. He always had something interesting to say and even if you had no idea what he was going on about (which was something that happened often), you had no problems getting lost in his voice. It was a little unnerving, the effect he had over you. “I actually… I wanted to speak with you. I missed your voice.” Your eyebrow raises once again from his words. You can feel your heartbeat starting to pick up and you force yourself to stay quiet. Was he finally going to confess his feelings to you?

For the longest time, you and Julian had an unspoken thing between each other. Most of your time together was filled with flirting and fleeting touches, both being too shy to do anything more. You knew he liked you as much as you liked him, but you always thought that Julian needed to be the one to make the first official move. It just seemed right, and you didn’t want to impose yourself on him. He did this a lot though, begging to speak with you and act as if he’d confess before completely losing confidence and changing the subject of conversation all together. You were patient though, and you were more than willing to give Julian all the time he needs. 

You keep your eyes trained on the coffee in front of you, trying to make it seem that his words weren’t getting to you. Oh, if only he knew. “I couldn’t sleep. I tried to, but I just wanted to hear your voice. I wanted to be in the same room as you. Everything’s always better when you’re by my side.” Julian’s voice is just above a whisper as he speaks, but the words don’t go unheard. You can hear them crystal clear, almost as if he were shouting them. There’s a ghost of a smile on your lips as you try to keep yourself from getting too hopeful. Even if he didn’t end up confessing, his words are true and they mean a lot to you. “Why do you think that is?” 

“Hmm?” You turn around with two mugs of black coffee, your eyes landing on him curiously. “Why do I think what is?” You place a mug of steaming coffee in front of him before turning back around so you could add milk and sugar to your own. “Why do I think you enjoy my company?” He goes quiet again after your question and you don’t need to look to know there’s a deep blush on his cheeks. “I think you already know the answer to that if you’re asking me.” There’s a blush on your cheeks as well, but Julian doesn’t need to know that. 

Once you’re content with the amount of sugar and milk in your coffee, you take the empty seat next to Julian. Out of the corner of your eye you can see him staring at you and you find yourself holding back a giggle. He’s flustered and immediately looks away when finding that he’s caught. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot.” You raise the mug to your lips, blowing gently to cool down the drink. “About us.” You nearly spill the coffee. The last time he said something similar to that, he had dragged you around the village all day in attempts to break up with you, if you could even call it that. Your slip up doesn’t go unnoticed by Julian, who instead laughs in response. “Relax, I’m not going to jump you. I just mean…” He takes in a deep breath before the words tumble out of his mouth. “IthinkIloveyou?” It sounded more like a question than a statement, but even with how fast the words came spilling out you knew what he had said. Still, that didn’t stop you from wanting to hear him say it again. 

“I’m sorry, what?” You play coy, turning to the side so that you were completely facing Julian. “I don’t think I heard you right.” Your heart was swelling up as Julian looked everywhere but at you. He was completely red in the face now, sweat on his brow as he tried to rephrase his confession. 

“I said that IthinkImayloveyou.” His face is somehow a darker shade of red now and you decide to end the poor man’s suffering. However, before you can intervene he speaks up again. “No, no. That’s not what I wanted to say.” His hands are clenched into fists as he murmurs a few words of encouragement to himself under his breath. “Iaminlovewithyou.” His eye is nearly twitching at his own incapability to confess his feelings aloud. “I SAID I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU.” You weren’t surprised that he tripped and fell over his confession, but you hadn’t expected him to shout it. It was cute though.

You both sit in complete silence, Julian opening his mouth to say something every few seconds only to close it when he decides not to make the situation any worse. You blink a few times before a lopsided grin forms over your lips. “I know.” You finally break the silence and Julian nearly topples off the stool. “You had me waiting forever for that confession. I knew you’d be a blushing mess but I didn’t think you’d scream it. That was a cute surprise.” He watches you with wide eyes before quickly masking his expression with that of confidence. “Oh, and I love you too.” 

“Well-- well I mean, of course, wait-- what?” 

“Did you really question if I felt the same? After everything we’ve been through?” You laugh under your breath before leaning over and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “You’re silly, but I expected nothing less.”

“You love me?” He sounds completely floored, as if he didn’t expect it. His eyes are wide as he stares at you, searching your face as if you’d suddenly confess that you had been joking. Neither of you thought you were that cruel, but Julian did have a tendency of overthinking things. 

“You really think I’d let you wake me up at four in the morning if I didn’t?” Julian blinks several times as he leans forward on the counter, the widest smile on his lips.

“Touché.” 


End file.
